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4.5.3. Budgets Stakeholders expressed concerns about a similar, blanket approach to budget levels. However, it should be noted that the NCF no longer imposes a budget of £10,000; instead, it is at the discretion of individual strategic partners to determine appropriate budgets for the short films they fund, as long as they produce a minimum of four Digital Shorts films each year. However, many of the stakeholders feel that the current budget levels, especially for Digital Shorts, are still too low and too rigid. “While understanding the need to set limits and have rules around public funds, ultimately the film itself determines the budget.” Sean Gascoine, United Agents There is consensus among the stakeholders that all short films made with public money, from Digital Shorts level upwards, should pay their crew and cast at least the national minimum wage. However, many stakeholders question whether it is actually possible to adhere to national minimum wage legislation at the budget levels that Digital Shorts are made on. Despite the establishment of Digital Shorts Plus/Digital Nation, the perception remains that there is insufficient flexibility within the UK Film Council‟s programmes; that there are not enough opportunities for filmmakers to progress to making mid or higher-budget short films, and to make enough of them, before taking the leap to feature filmmaking. Low budgets are perceived to constrain the kinds of stories that can be told, thus contributing to perceived homogenisation of short films financed by public sector initiatives. “Working with bigger budgets offers a completely different learning experience and a step up for teams than working within the constraints of £10,000 budgets; it offers more scope to make the shorts look cinematic. Perhaps a way forward would be to have the regional funds collaborate more, supporting fewer filmmakers with more concentrated efforts and bigger budgets.” Mia Bays, Producer and Creative Executive, Film London‟s Microwave (See also the case study on Six Shooter, Appendix 1) The only scheme with a clear remit to produce films at higher budget levels is Cinema Extreme programme. Some interviewees saw it as a valuable and provocative showcase for distinct voices: “What comes out (of the short film schemes), including the alliances between filmmakers, are quite good – in particular the Cinema Extreme films.” Alexandra Stone, CMP Page 40
Others were more critical, openly questioning the value of the programme on three principal grounds: the quality of the films produced, the funds expended on making the films and the fact that it stands alone at the apex of the talent development pyramid. This appears to be a significant concern: if the key role of short films is to nurture filmmakers to the point at which they can step into the feature film industry, is a single bridgehead at that critical point appropriate? While the challenge of managing so much activity across the UK should not be understated, there appear to be areas where control is exercised too tightly or there is insufficient management by exception, and other areas where leadership is absent. There appears to be a need to consider the efficiency and effectiveness of employing an intermediary company to manage all of the UK Film Council‟s short film activity and re-assess whether that activity is optimally balanced. 4.6 The roles of higher education and Skillset “Many people do not have the privilege of going to film school, so short films offer an opportunity to learn on the job, and [to learn] from making mistakes you cannot afford to make while working on feature films.” Mia Bays, Producer and Creative Executive, Film London‟s Microwave If the central purpose of short filmmaking is to develop talent, Skillset ought to play a central role. Skillset employs a talent scout to identify the best filmmaking talent emerging from tertiary education (especially undergraduate programmes) and signpost them towards the best forum for their continuing development, in particular the screen academies. “Overall, we feel the short filmmaking in the academies is strong, though the education system is too much about „bums on seats‟. My instinct is that this is also the case about the shorts schemes themselves; too much money spread across too many people, a scattergun approach – though the timeframe over which you need to measure progress is significant.” John Lee, Skillset Monitoring and Evaluation Co-ordinator In general, there seems little co-ordination of NCF activity with the training that Skillset supports 59 and that the higher education funding councils make a major contribution to. 59 Skillset’s support has made possible initiatives such as the London College of Communications 35mm project, which uses the production of a short film to teach students about high-level set crafts. The programme is expensive, costing several hundred thousand pounds each year, and although it is primarily intended to advance set crafts rather than showcase creative talent, it seems as though a specific opportunity to develop synergies with the other programmes may have been missed. Page 41
Page 1 and 2: Northern Alliance Review of short f
Page 3 and 4: Appendices I Case studies 56 II Def
Page 5 and 6: 1. Executive summary 1.1 Introducti
Page 7 and 8: support a single disabled filmmaker
Page 9 and 10: emerge as a result of the structure
Page 11 and 12: target audience consists of the var
Page 13 and 14: While our interviewees had sympathy
Page 15 and 16: 3.2 The UK Film Council‟s strateg
Page 17 and 18: Table 2: Summary of the NCF‟s pro
Page 19 and 20: All of the entities in the table ab
Page 21 and 22: Table 4: Recent applicants and awar
Page 23 and 24: Table 5: Strategic partners‟ prio
Page 25 and 26: There is a need to ground all futur
Page 27 and 28: Table 8: Success and its cost, from
Page 29 and 30: Shorts appears relatively efficient
Page 31 and 32: As noted in section 4.2 above, the
Page 33 and 34: Given that Cinema Extreme positions
Page 35 and 36: Figures for the Digital Shorts prog
Page 37 and 38: “We have no brief to work towards
Page 39: 4.5.2. Revenues Table 14: Scheme re
Page 43 and 44: 4.7 Support for showcasing films at
Page 45 and 46: The provision of culturally signifi
Page 47 and 48: less than a quarter of the cost of
Page 49 and 50: Recommendation: The UK Film Council
Page 51 and 52: emove the perceived element of comm
Page 53 and 54: As part of our review we checked th
Page 55 and 56: films produced in the UK. We would
Page 57 and 58: million in only a few weeks. I was
Page 59 and 60: That dedication and persistence has
Page 61 and 62: Appendix II Definitions Exactly wha
Page 63 and 64: Directors, started in 1989 and prod
Page 65 and 66: Appendix IV Why short films are mad
Page 67 and 68: Appendix V The public value of shor
Page 69 and 70: Social networking sites, such as Be
Page 71 and 72: Investment in the production of sho
Page 73 and 74: Agency Scheme Number of shorts Budg
Page 75 and 76: Appendix VIII Overview of the UK Fi
Page 77 and 78: Some rules, such as the requirement
Page 79 and 80: The future The short film schemes h
Page 81 and 82: Appendix XI Short film internationa
Page 83 and 84: Beyond Europe 1: New Zealand Film C
Page 85 and 86: Appendix XII Data availability Summ
Page 87 and 88: it subject to loss because of staff
Page 89 and 90: Appendix XIII Platforms and audienc
Page 91 and 92:
“There isn‟t much of an audienc
Page 93 and 94:
Appendix XV Access and diversity Pa
Page 95 and 96:
Appendix XVI Business affairs Short
Page 97 and 98:
(b) VAT is paid on awards and provi
Page 99 and 100:
Completion Fund, and from the Natio
Page 101 and 102:
The training scheme is best known f
Page 103 and 104:
Appendix XVIII The role of film fes
Page 105 and 106:
Appendix XIX List of interviewees O
Page 107 and 108:
Appendix XX Sample survey questionn
Page 109 and 110:
3. Measuring success How does your
Page 111 and 112:
4B. Festival screenings of short fi
Page 113 and 114:
4E. Revenue generated: Please provi
Page 115 and 116:
4H.Of the above, how many have subs
Page 117 and 118:
'Developing exceptional talent' and
Page 119 and 120:
for making and reporting distributi
Page 121 and 122:
Of the filmmakers supported by resp
Page 123 and 124:
Filmmaker activity On average, each
Page 125:
Appendix XXII Northern Alliance Nor
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Northern Alliance - BFI

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